For interior lighting, the ability to dim a light fixture is a desirable feature. One rudimentary method of dimming control is referred to as step dimming. Step dimming uses multiple switches that allow a user to select one of several (e.g., two or three) different brightness levels for a light fixture by appropriate setting of multiple switches. For example, in a three-bulb fluorescent fixture, one switch may control the two outer bulbs, while another switch may control the single inner bulb. By setting the switches appropriately, the user can turn on one, two, three or no bulbs in the fixture at one time, effectively providing four levels of dimming.
Many control circuits for lighting utilize phase cut dimming. In phase cut dimming, the leading or trailing edge of the line voltage is manipulated to reduce the RMS voltage provided to the light. When used with incandescent lamps, this reduction in RMS voltage results in a corresponding reduction in current and, therefore, a reduction in power consumption and light output. As the RMS voltage decreases, the light output from the incandescent lamp decreases.
In addition to control of the AC signal, other techniques for dimming light sources include 0-10V dimming and pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming. In 0-10V and PWM dimming, a dimming signal separate from the AC signal is provided to the light source. In 0-10V dimming, the dimming signal is a voltage level between 0 and 10V DC. The light source has a 100% output at 10V DC and a minimum output near 1V DC. Additional details on 0-10V dimming can be found in IEC Standard 60929. 0-10V dimming is conventionally used to dim fluorescent lighting.
In PWM dimming, a square wave is provided as the dimming signal. The duty cycle of the square wave can be used to control the light output of the light source. For example, with a 50% duty cycle, the output of the light source may be dimmed 50%. With a 75% duty cycle, the light output may be 75%. Thus, the light output of the light source may be proportional to the duty cycle of the input square wave or to the time average of the input signal for non-square wave inputs.
Recently, solid state lighting systems have been developed that provide light for general illumination. These solid state lighting systems utilize light emitting diodes or other solid state light sources that are coupled to a power supply that receives the AC line voltage and converts that voltage to a voltage and/or current suitable for driving the solid state light emitters. Typical power supplies for light emitting diode light sources include linear current regulated supplies and/or pulse width modulated current and/or voltage regulated supplies.
In the general illumination application of solid state light sources, one desirable characteristic is to be compatible with existing dimming techniques. In particular, dimming that is based on varying the duty cycle of the line voltage may present several challenges in power supply design for solid state lighting. Unlike incandescent lamps, LEDs typically have very rapid response times to changes in current. This rapid response of LEDs may, in combination with conventional dimming circuits, present difficulties in driving LEDs.
For example, one way to reduce the light output in response to the phase cut AC signal is to utilize the pulse width of the incoming phase cut AC line signal to directly control the dimming of the LEDs. The 120 Hz signal of the full-wave rectified AC line signal would have a pulse width the same as the input AC signal. This technique limits the ability to dim the LEDs to levels below where there is insufficient input power to energize the power supply. Also, at narrow pulse width of the AC signal, the output of the LEDs can appear to flicker, even at the 120 Hz frequency. This problem may be exacerbated in 50 Hz systems as the full wave rectified frequency of the AC line is only 100 Hz.
Furthermore, variation in the input signal may affect the ability to detect the presence of a phase cut dimmer or may make detection unreliable. For example, in systems that detect the presence of a phase cut dimmer based on detection of the leading edge of the phase cut AC input, if a reverse-phase cut dimmer is used, the dimming is never detected. Likewise, many residential dimmers have substantial variation in pulse width even without changing the setting of a dimmer. If a power supply detects the presence of dimming based on a threshold pulse width, the power supply could detect the presence of dimming on one cycle and not on another as a result of the variation in pulse width.
A further issue relates to AC dimmers providing some phase cut even at “full on.” If the LEDs are directly controlled by the AC pulse width, then the LEDs may never reach full output but will dim the output based on the pulse width of the “full on” signal. This can result in a large dimming of output. For example, an incandescent lamp might see a 5% reduction in power when the pulse width is decreased 20%. Many incandescent dimmers have a 20% cut in pulse width at full on, even though the RMS voltage is only reduced 5%. While this would result in a 5% decrease in output of an incandescent lamp, it results in a 20% decrease in output if the phase cut signal is used to directly control the LEDs.